Apex Legends Chaos Theory update patch notes: Legend buffs and nerfs

The Chaos Theory event makes some big gameplay changes, in addition to the new content in the collection event. Check out the full patch notes for all the changes to Legends, weapons and more coming on March 9.

Caustic’s Town Takeover, Bangalore’s Heirloom, and a bunch of new skins are the main highlights of the Chaos Theory collection event, but Respawn have made a lot of tweaks to Legends and weapons too.

At the top of the list we have nerfs to the Mastiff, which had definitely become a bit strong in recent seasons. There’s also nerfs to Caustic, and some improvements to some of the weaker Legends. No Fill Matchmaking is also being introduced.

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No Fill in Apex Legends

No fill will allow you to queue up for a match without teammates joining you. Although it’s not quite a solo experience, it will achieve a similar goal of allowing you to play without worrying about random teammates. You can read more about how it works exactly here.

For full details on the Town Takeover, the new Ring Fury mode, and the event skins and rewards, check out our full Chaos Theory event hub.

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Check out the full patch notes from Respawn below.

LEGEND UPDATES

Caustic

Nox Gas Grenade cooldown increased from 2.5 minutes to 3.5 minutes.
Nox Gas damages at a flat rate of 5hp per tick instead of ramping up from 6hp → 12hp.

Caustic is brutally effective at slowing down engagements. The entirety of his kit revolves around gas with a large area of effect, slow, vision obstruction, and direct health damage. It’s proven to be too oppressive in too many scenarios especially considering teammates can play in gas relatively unimpaired. Significantly reducing gas damage (without taking it away completely or having it affect armor instead) seems like a fair compromise that stays true to the character while making him less oppressive on the receiving end. We will be monitoring the data and gameplay closely. If these changes hit Caustic’s appeal or effectiveness too hard we will revisit accordingly.

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Pathfinder

Removed Low Profile

Low Profile has been used as a balancing tool for both mobile and/or small legends. Although Path is still mobile, his hitbox is large. While his overall win rate and encounter win rate is by no means low, it’s hard to justify keeping Low Profile on a hitbox of his size.

Gibraltar

Removed 15% faster heal item usage while in Dome of Protection.

Horizon

Increased Black Hole cooldown from 2 minutes to 3 minutes

Revenant

Revenant’s Silence now disables Mirage’s cloaked revive & respawn as well as Octane’s Swift Mend.

Wattson

Wattson now has passive shield regen at 0.5 hp/s (half of Octane’s current health regen rate).

Rampart

Explosives damage Amped Cover normally, instead of inflicting 200 damage.
Explosives damage Sheila normally, instead of inflicting 175 damage.

Walls should be beefy and powerful once built. Before Rampart shipped, we were worried that her nests would be too oppressive and so we gave enemy players the option to quickly clear them out with grenades. This wasn’t necessary, as it turns out, so we’re removing increased damage from grenades against Amped Cover and Sheila.

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WEAPON UPDATE

Weapon Optics

All gold AR and LMG default optics updated to 2x Bruiser.

Mastiff

Pellet damage decreased from 13 → 11. Fire rate increased from 1.0 → 1.1.

The goal of these changes are to place this weapon’s identity between the fast fire EVA-8 and the heavy hitting Peacekeeper. The Mastiff has consistently been dominant in close quarters combat given its forgiving spread pattern and high damage spikes with each shot. This change reduces that high damage potential in order to limit the amount of two pumps players experience on the receiving end.

Wingman

+1 bullet to every magazine size, including base.

Hemlok

Increased hip-fire spread.

The burst damage from the Hemlok’s hip-fire was feeling a little too consistent for an AR that should excel at medium range. This change mitigates the Hemlok’s close quarters damage spikes that felt bad on the receiving end.

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QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES

Kings Canyon Loot – we’ve done a pass on the loot to bring up the quality across the map, while also maintaining a certain amount of loot after Mirage Voyage has flown away.
- The wooden shacks across the map should have a few more pieces each, and generally be a little higher quality.
- Spotted Lake has been reduced to Medium Quality from High.
- Crash Site has redistributed the loot in the area slightly. The amount stays the same, but the higher quality loot should be in the ship.
- Caustic Treatment has more loot than Water Treatment, and it remains Hiqh Quality.
Locked Weapon Optic Swapping – For guns with fully locked attachment slots, like fully-kitted gold weapons and most crate weapons, you can now remove the optic and replace it with a different sight. This does not apply to the Kraber sniper rifle.
Assists have been added to the in-game HUD, next to kills. This was already present in Ranked and now has been added to unranked. Assists still don’t contribute to XP. This has replaced the Spectator “eye” icon.
Assists and Knocks have been added to your squad’s banners and will show at the end of a match.
Club names now appear on Match Summary and Champion screen if all players are part of the same club.
Items will no longer “stick” to Crafting Replicator when dropped on the Replicator.
Badge Progress – for badges that have longer amounts of progress, hovering over the badge will show you more information. For example, if you’re trying to get 50 wins as Lifeline, you’ll now see that you have 45 instead of somewhere between 15 and 50.

Ping My Deathbox – While respawning on a dropship, you can now ping your own deathbox to help locate it easier.
Gold Backpack – Players being revived by a gold backpack will have a crackle of energy—based on the tier of armor they wear—while the revive is taking place. They will also display the armor heal FX when the revive is finished. This change should help players prioritize pushing a revive in progress.
Players on PC can now go back to the title screen from the lobby to allow switching of data centers without restarting the game.
Added numbers to the Advanced Look Controls. This should help people experiment and easily revert back to their favorite settings.
When scanning a beacon for Ring 6, you should now be able to see the location where Ring 6 finishes.
Inspect Weapon – Since the Survival Slot took its button on controller (we only have so many buttons!), Inspect Weapon has been moved to the emote wheel by default. It can be bound to any key on PC.